Stand for projection screen



P. F. ALBEE, JR 3,30%,Q9

STAND FOR PROJECTION SCREEN Filed April 19, 1965 J ae 35 0 \INVENTOR:

PERCY FREDERICK ALBEEJR BY ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofiice3,369,649 Patented Mar. 14, 1967 3,309,049 STAND FGR PROJEQTTON SCREENPercy Frederick Aibee, J12, Barrington, RL, assrgnor to Q-PanelCorporation, a corporation of Rho-tie Island Filed Apr. 19, 1965, Ser.No. 449,231 4 Claims. (CL 243-171) This invention relates to acollapsible stand for a projection screen and particularly to a standwhich will be of simple construction and lend itself to erection for useor for storage in the corner of a room.

Projection stands of the general character herein referred to heretoforehave usually been made up of an upright standard having three legsradiating therefrom to form what is generally known as a tripod support.In the erected position such a stand will not store in a corner of aroom and must be completely folded for storage. Further, standsof theprior construction will not readily lend themselves to using the screenadjacent to the corner of a room since one or more of the legs Willundoubtedly abut the wall and prohibit the entire assembly to be backedclose into the corner. Further such a stand does not lend itself tomounting the screen in an overhead diagonal position as the weight ofthe screen is located too far forward of the center of gravity of themounting.

It is, therefore, one of the principal objects of this invention toprovide a collapsible stand for a projection screen which will be soweighted as to mount an overhead screen in adiagonal position.

Another object of the invention is to provide a collapsible weightedtripod so that the weight may be folded into itself for storing orcarrying purposes.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a simple projectionscreen stand with a center post as the main supporting part to providegreatest vertical stability.

A further object is to provide base bars that may be used to hold thebase during adjustment of the screen upwardly.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certainnovel features of construction as will be more fully described andparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the projection screen stand with thescreen in place;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevational view with the screen removed and the standfor the projection screen complete with the counting brackets;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational view of the bottom portion of thestand showing in phantom the bottom portion partially folded;

P16. 4 is a sectional view taken on lines 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a rear perspective view of a fragmental portion of the screenmounting support; and

FIGS. 6 and 7 are fragmental perspective views of different positions onthe screen with reference to the mounting post.

Referring now to the drawings, 10 designates a vertical telescopingpost, the base portion of which forms one leg of a tripod support andwhich telescopingly receives an adjustable upper portion 11 therein. Atthe upper end of the base portion 10 is a collar 12, the collar 12 beingpreferably force fitted onto the upper end of the vertical post 16. Thecollar 12 is shown as being rectangular although other shapes wouldsutlice, the main requirement being that two substantially flat surfaces13 and 14 (see FIG. 4) are provided, which surfaces should liesubstantially at right angles to each other. Pivotally received on thesurfaces '13 and 14 about threaded pins 15 and 16 are a pair of legs 17and 18. Adjacent the ends of the legs 17 and 13 there is pivoted a pairof brace arms 19 and 20, which brace arms are in turn pivotally receivedon a second collar 21 that is also of rectangular shape being providedwith two substantially flat surfaces substantially at right angles toeach other. For ease in folding the stand, the surfaces 13 and 14 arelocated further outwardly from the center of the post 10 than are thecorresponding surfaces on the second collar 21, thus permitting thebrace arms 19 and 2.0 to pivot inside of the legs '17 and 13. Referringto the phantom portion of FIG. 3, it will be seen that the collar 21 isadapted to slide upwardly along the post 10 bringing inwardly the legs17 and 18, and as this occurs, it is necessary that the brace arms 19and 29 pivot in a plane which will be inside of the legs 17 and 18. Thecollar 21 is limited in its downward motion along the post 10 by anenlargement 22, and below this enlargement or stop means 22 a resilientfoot 23 is positioned at the lower end of the post 10. The brace arms 19and 20 are close to and generally parallel to the supporting surface asseen in FIG. 1. To insure stability of the structure thus far described,it is advantageous to have the center of gravity of the structure lowand extend between the legs and preferably on a bisector of the angletherebetween. To achieve this result, the brace arms 19 and 20 may bemade of heavier stock, such as steel, than the legs :17 and 18 ofaluminum, and preferably the combined weight of the legs 17 and 18together with the brace arms 19 and it; will be greater than the weightof the post 10. This will insure that the center of gravity of thestructure will be low and will extend on the bisector of the anglebetween the legs when extended and insure inherent stability of thestructure.

The telescoping upper portion 11 of the post is provided with a numberof apertures as at 25, which apertures are adapted to receive a pin 26that passes through a hole 27 in the upper collar 12, thus holding thepost 11 in adjusted position relative to the lower post 10. To support aprojection screen such as, for example, 30, the frame generallydesignated 31 is received thereon. This frame 31 consists of an upperbar 32 and a lower bar 33 which have their respective ends joined by thescreen holding brackets 34 and 35. Midway of the upper bar 32 abail-like member 36 is pivoted to the bar as at 37, while midway of thebar 33 an aperture is provided which receives a stud 38. Brace means 39and 40 extend from the upper bar 32 in pivotal fashion to join at acommon point as at td where they are pinned to the post 11 in a suitablefashion.

For ease in storing the stand in complete assembled condition in acorner or other small area, it is merely necessary to unpin the bracearms 39 and 40 from their common point as at 41 and unpin the bar 33from the pin 38. In this position the parallelogram frame made up of thebars 32, 33, 34 and 35 will pivot around the pin 37 of the bail 36,permitting storage tightly into a corner.

The screen 30 is mounted upon arcuate rods 46 which are generally eachin a vertical plane and which frictionally fit into the brackets 34 and35 in such a manner that the screen 30 may be moved from a verticalplane such as shown in FIG. 6 to an incline or diagonal plane orposition such as shown in FIG. 7 by sliding the rods as through thebrackets 34 and 35 which frictionally grip the rods so as to dispose thescreen in a plane which it is desired it should assume depending uponthe height to which the telescoping post 11 is raised so that theprojected light or picture will be at substantially right angles to theplane of the screen and thus not cause the picture to be distorted orkeystoned.

In the moving of this collapsible stand from a collapsed position to anerected position, the collar 12 will he slid downwardly along the postIt} so as to spread the legs 17 and 18 which togetherwith the post 10provides a triangular base support. The screen will. then be mounted inits brackets, and then the upper portion of the telescoping post will beraised, and in order to hold the post at its lower end in the raising ofthe upper telescopic portion of the post, the arms 19 and it will be atsuch a locationadiacent to the supporting surface for the stand. thatthe operators feet may be placed upon the arms 19 and 24) as the upperportion of the post 1* with its screen is raised, thus enabling a verygood relationship of the parts in moving the screen to the elev atedposition.

It will be apparent that when the screen is in the elevated position, itis desirable to tilt the screen at an angle such, for instance, as shownin FIG. 7 to placeit in aplane at right angles to the projected light,thus causing the center .of gravity-of the screen to be projectedoutwardly from the post a considerable distance, but as the screen andthe legs and arms 19 and 20 extend on the. same side of the post thatthe screen is mounted, the triangular relation between the bottom of thepost which engages the floor or support and the ends of the legs 17 and18-will be such that the center of gravity of the screen andthe entiredevice will pass within the area of this support and thus support thescreen even though it is tilted Well forward which is a condition whichwill not exist in the situation where there are three legs equallyangularly disposed with reference to the floor or support and the postfor mounting the screen extends upwardly from the center of these legs.relationship of the tilted screen such as here shown, the base providesan unusually stable support.

I claim:

1. A mounting stand adapted to be maintained in an.

upright position upon a generally horizontal supporting surfacecomprising a vertical post, a first collar slidably mounted on saidpost, two legs pivoted to said collar at an angle other than a straightangle, a second collar below and spaced from the first collar andslidably received on Thus, in the particular,

2. A mounting stand as in claim 1 wherein the upper end of the post hasa parallelogram frame of two similarly extending, bars, end memberspivoted thereto, means.

pivoting one bar of the frame to the post and detachable securing rneansholding the other bar to the frame.

3. A mounting stand as in claim 2 wherein brace means are attached toone bar at spaced locations and are attached to the post.

4. A mounting stand adapted to be maintained in an upright position upona generally horizontalsupporting surface comprising a vertical post, afirst collar slidably mounted on said post, two legs contacting andpivoted to said collar atan angle other than a straight angle, a secondcollar below and spaced from the first collar and slida-bly received onthe post, a pair of arms contacting and each pivoted to said secondcollar and to each leg, said first collar contacting'said le s at agreater radial distance from the axis of said post than, the contact ofsaid second collar with said arms so that the arms will fold inside thelegs, said legs and said post forming a,

three-point contact with a horizontal supporting surface.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 755,043 3/1904Pike et al. 248-171 846,552 3/l907 Collins et al. 248-96 1,000,8408/1911 Pennington 211-11916 1,199,773 10/1916 Ericson' et al. 95-831,893,096 1/1933 Michaud 211-172 2,353,374 7/1944 Thompson 2ll-l70CLAUDE ALE ROY, Primary Examiner.

I. F. FOSS, Assistant Examiner.

1. A MOUNTING STAND ADAPTED TO BE MAINTAINED IN AN UPRIGHT POSITION UPONA GENERALLY HORIZONTAL SUPPORTING SURFACE COMPRISING A VERTICAL POST, AFIRST COLLAR SLIDABLY MOUNTED ON SAID POST, TWO LEGS PIVOTED TO SAIDCOLLAR AT AN ANGLE OTHER THAN A STRAIGHT ANGLE, A SECOND COLLAR BELOWAND SPACED FROM THE FIRST COLLAR AND SLIDABLY RECEIVED ON THE POST, APAIR OF ARMS EACH PIVOTED TO SAID SECOND COLLAR AND TO EACH LEG, AND ASTOP MEANS AT THE BASE PORTION OF SAID POST TO LIMIT MOVEMENT OF THESECOND COLLAR, SAID LEGS AND SAID POST FORMING A THREE-POINT CONTACTWITH A HORIZONTAL SUPPORTING SURFACE.